User talk:QuirkyWallace
Welcome Hi, welcome to Where the World Ends Wiki! Thanks for your edit to the Hypno Toad page. Please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything! -- Hlissner (Talk) 06:55, December 24, 2011 Re: Technology Drawings Heya! Just to follow up on your comment on the Tech page: That'd be awesome :D I forgot to mention (about their weapons tech) they have gunpowder cannons (think Pinkie Pie's party cannon), which is something I'd expect on some outlaw's airships (but since airships usually aren't very big, and are zepplins, firing one tends to list them quite violently). Cervidortals There are three of them in the middle level of the World Tree (a large section of the tree is hollowed out). One of these three has never been activated (and can't be). They're massive (10-11x the height of most deer), surrounded with an archaic wooden frame, encrusted with gemstone engravings that look a lot like glowing veins. Chiselled amber gems sit in each of four corners around the frame. Portal magic is a long forgotten practice. These have been there for longer than anyone can remember and require an unearthly amount of power - which the World Tree provides. The portals themselves are like surfaces of mercury, ripples swim out as you go through them, and through them, you can see the other side in perfect clarity. The portal in Equestria is almost as old, and built into a side chambers in the lower, common levels of Canterlot castle. The one in Camelu was destroyed a long time ago, and then rebuilt. The Cervids have been trying to reconstruct it, and in so doing, relearn how it works, but have been met with limited success. Going through it can leave most travellers very sick and sometimes physically drained. Many children have portal phobias thanks to it. Not to mention, though there haven't been any casualties, the rumor mill loves to take shots at it. Gemstone Enchantments As for gems, just think of jewels where their colors correlate to what they can contain. * (red) Rubies are best at containing fire enchantments (but so can amber or garnets) * (green) Jade or green sapphire can hold earth enchantments * (blue) sapphire can contain water * (light blue) diamonds = air * (clear) crystal/quartz = aether * (black) spinel or black diamonds = void. This isn't exhaustive: there are thousands of different gems that have the same colors - and they all have different qualities. It takes an expert to know which one is best for which element. There are four main factors in choosing a crystal: * Their capacity, often determined by their carot size. This can be compensated for by condensing the gemstone more (Cervids are experts at this). * Their throughput, determined by their clarity and purity. A clear sapphire will be most powerful; while dirty, misty sapphire will won't. You can damage an enchantment's throughput by scratching or cracking it. * Their compatibility, blue sapphire will quite effectively contain and unleash water enchantments, but may shatter if someone tried to put fire magic into it. It is also able to contain an air enchantment, but not as effectively as diamond would. * Its durability: they have to eventually be refilled. With the exception of VOID enchantments, that can "absorb" magic from the air and convert it into something usable. The more coarse the exterior of the gem, the lower its durability. Smooth surfaces conduct the energies better (think of magic as a flow of water that "clings" to the surface of gems, constantly in motion. Coarse edges allow that "flow" to flow off edges and into the environment, also called "bleed"). When (and if) that flow doesn't leave the surface far enough, it will return to the surface with a minuscule amount of force, but enough to damage the crystal's surface, and therefore its durability. They are usually framed in golden or metallic alloys to prevent bleed or compress the enchantments. Enchantment types They're specific. A popular fire enchantment will coat a bullet on fire when ley is coursed through it. A gun that can fire enchanted bullets has a mechanism to inject ley into the bullet as it passes through the chamber. In some cases, that's unnecessary because the ley in the air will ignite it (it's required if you're shooting indoors though). Some ruby enchantments may be built to be very weak, so that the bullet will shatter as it leaves the chamber, shooting pure fire at a target (for the purpose of catching something on fire without causing a bullet wound, for whatever reason. --- Anywho, phew! Sorry for that rant. Those are all the notes I have on that. Let me know if you have anything. (PS: Might be helpful: http://www.gemhut.com/gemidx.htm) Cheers, Hlissner 06:02, December 25, 2011 (UTC) Re: Re: Cervid Portals Err, just realized my typo, meant to be Cervid Portals XD. Anywho, two tips for using the talk page: put four tildes at the bottom of your post to leave an automatic , signature. Also, good idea to use headers (like you would on a wiki page) so that it's easier to distinguish between each message. The World Tree That aside, about the world tree - yes and no, it's certainly an old tree and they certainly depend on it a lot, but they don't see it as some kind of divine being or thing. They know their people grew it eons ago, and they respect and take good care of it, but they're certainly not a theocratic race. I actually have a quote from Aschere (the eldest of Eternity's Council) about exactly that: "Yggdrasil is the lifeblood of Cervidas, but only fools would praise or worship it. It is not a fawn to be coddled or a god demanding tribute, no. Rather, it is more like a savage beast; rooted, chained and unable to speak or scream. We are the dogs biting at the hooves that feed us, and it is my duty to make certain our fangs never draw its blood. This way, both will survive." The tree itself is colossal, almost reaching the clouds, surrounded by a redwood forest of incredibly old and tall trees. The roots of the world tree are also large (enough to swat an ursa major), and Aschere has the ability to control them. Those roots form the foundation of the entire city, which is high above the ground, suspended among the redwood trees. The forest below it is the Eternal Forest, and is mostly pitch black, because little light penetrates the Concordia city "canopy" over it. They don't actually live in the World Tree, but many of their most important societal functions are in it. At the heart of it is the massive portal chamber, which sees a lot of traffic between the three nations. Few non-cervids actually live in Concordia though (mostly just scholars, researchers, botanists, etc). At the top of the tree is the council chamber, and above that, Eternity's council chamber. Leading up to it are a series of colleges, libraries as well as the baracks for the Cervidian Sentinels. Hope that paints a better picture. The Boar To answer your comment on my DA profile about the Boar: they don't wear much. They occasionally wear simple colored sashes or cloth to denote respect for a fallen sibling. But they're best known for their elaborate facial tattoos. Think Yakuza tattoos without color, often drawn across one side or their entire face. The tattoos never cover their snouts or mouths. They will often go to great lengths to carve their armor out so that these markings are exposed. The more "important" a certain boar is, the farther down their side(s) the tattoos go. Though no one has seen him, King Sowron would be covered, head to hooves in those tattoos. The tattoos on boar exiles are significantly faded ("burned" off with acid when they're exiled). They have extraordinary regeneration, which they attribute to their faith, and so after they've recovered, all that remains are scars and the faded markings. They choose to burn off the markings as a final gesture of respect to their earth god and/or king before leaving in exile. When exiled they have the option to challenge an "Ire" (the most powerful boar in each city) to regain their honour (and for their position). As for their weapons, like the Griffin, they believe guns are cowardly. They're up in your face, using spiked armor or extended metal tusks to ram or impale their enemies. They also believe magic is cowardly, and make a point of never using enchantments, but seeing one of these tanks in action, you'd be happy they didn't – like they need it! Their hides are thick enough to soak in a lot of damage, and if they're standing on soil, grass or rock, they have the uncanny ability to resist magic and somehow thicken their skin (bullets and blades will have a lot of trouble puncturing their hides - though their undersides are still vulnerable). Exile boar call this ability "standing fast", an ability that the Gildedale earth ponies seem to have, but it can drain the boar mentally very quickly. On average, they're a little smaller than buffalo, but exiles claim Sowron is large enough to wrestle bears with one hoof. Also: There are a few fringe cases of exile boar without markings - suspected to be boar raised outside of Boardor, but they don't ever seem to learn how to stand fast, and usually turn out mild mannered, weak, and timid compared to normal boar. Hlissner 08:20, December 25, 2011 (UTC) Re: Concordia The describe the roots, imagine a massive tree with colossal roots like strands emerging from its lower trunk and weaved like frozen serpents through the earth's surface and outwards from the center for miles. Now imagine some of these roots going into the ground and coming right back up before they level out at about half the world tree's height. There, they swirl outwards like a second canopy of serpents over the earth's surface. Over this canopy is Concordia, a circular city made of ancient wood (not the World Tree's) where buildings closer to the trunk are higher than those farther away. The extreme edges of the cities extend into bridges that reach over to nearby mountains. Think of Concordia as a layered city, like mushrooms out of the trunk of a tree, but only the bottom "layer" (above the Eternal Forest) is made out of the tree's roots. The higher ones are built over wooden platforms. They are connected with crystal platform elevators that use magic to rise and fall. Between many of the roots are the towering redwood trees. The trees closer to the world tree have luminescent veins of blue energy flowing through them, offering the city a great deal of light. The Eternal forest beneath sees a little bit of light breaking through cracks in the canopy, but for the most part it is pitch black. Re: The Boar Looking great! :D Although, because of how apt they are at charging, I imagined their hind legs thicker and more burly. This'll probably help with the "hedgehog effect" XD Otherwise, I'm loving how they're turning out >:D Re: Portals They're big: 10-11x the height of most deer, with easily enough space for 5-6 ponies to walk through at once, though the Sentinels only allow 2 or 3 in at a time. Each portal is surrounded by an archaic wooden frame, encrusted with gemstone engravings that look a lot like glowing veins. Chiselled amber gems sit in each of four corners around the frame. Re: Aerodetector Sweet! Oh, and another long reply! Rejoice! For the most part, you've described how it works. First, let me explain one thing about the flow of ley: it exists everywhere, in pure and "corrupt" variants, usually not enough to harm or affect anything. Where residiual users capture this energy and convert it into something usable (similar to electricity charging a battery), elemental users manipulate ley directly to form a "circuit" between themselves and the inherent energies in the elements. That inherent energy is not not ley energy, there is no single name for it. Second, ley has two states, which I'll call passive and active. Imagine the difference like oxygen and carbon dioxide, respectively. We breathe in oxygen, and expel carbon dioxide. The same way, magic users "absorb" or "manipulate" passive ley and in so doing it becomes active. When an elemental magic user wields their element (lets say water), then the water they manipulate will be enveloped in trace amounts of active ley. The difference is so small that more skilled magic users will be able to detect it. More powerful magic users even use this as a way to intimidate enemies (making the air feel heavier around them). Anyhow, moving on: Let me divide elemental mechanics into two categories: For magic users Elemental magic users have he benefit of "feeling" the elemental energies as if it were a sixth sense. This way, air magic users can use it to sense slight changes in air pressure, density or movement, and with experience can start to distinguish every from a pebble falling through the air, to individuals entering a room, detect breathing, or even hear the vibrations in the air (heartbeats, sounds, etc). With more experience they may be able to identify people just by the sound of their spatial presence. Many animals with sharp ears have the ability to hear that, but not with nearly as much range or effectiveness. In the same way, earth magic users could use vibrations in the ground, fire magic users could sense heat (or lack of it), and water users could detect "movement" through the moisture in the air. Water magic is probably the most adaptable of the four (works anywhere, even in deserts, to some degree), but you should have a decent idea of how magic could also be used to counter each of these (and they'd need to "soak up" active ley to prevent magic users from detecting it). Void enchantments are especially useful for this. Magic users can "feel" the energies that course through engems (even if it's not their element), so they don't need the device to do any of the "detection" work for them (only the act of casting the magic). Non-magic users However, non-magic users have things hard. They need the enchantments to do both the casting AND the hard work because they can't interface with magic themselves. While magic users could learn to distinguish certain changes in the flow of energy through experience, enchanted devices can't and usually have very specific uses (and are much easier to fool). Take the mine shaft idea for example: an earth magic user could tell the difference between the rumbling of an impending collapse and the vibrations of a miner's pickaxe striking the walls. A device would not know the difference. They might be able to be calibrated, but what if the miner strikes the wall in a slightly different way (maybe it hits something exceptionally dull or hard that produces an unexpected vibration). More calibration? Maybe, but for every "exception" there's a margin of error, and that margin would be unacceptable in an environment where lives are at risk. Mining is something that's done very rarely, not only because of the creatures found underground (like Beholders), but because it damages the environment (aside from the Ibex, many races are quite eco-friendly). Besides, minerals are often mined in small amounts, then grown (almost) indefinitely on rock farms, so it's rare to see a full blown mining operation. It could definitely help with subterranean navigation through (finding a way out), though a magic user would be able to tell if they're being led to a real opening or a small crack in a wall somewhere, while a device probably wouldn't. Power uses As such, devices are used for a lot of dumb things, often power uses, such as: (mineshaft example again) applying a lot of air pressure to prevent a tunnel collapse. Air engems could be triggered to "trap" and "inflate" air in a certain section of the mineshaft to delay the collapse for the precious few seconds they might need to escape. The ideal situation would have the 'trigger' left in the hooves of an elemental magic user. Indirect All these elements are interesting and powerful on their own, but they can be used for more creative, indirect things. For example, air or fire magic could be used to create sound (creating vibrations directly or with heat) => voila, you've got a speaker system (Vinyl will be happy XD). The same way, an aero detector could literally create a high-frequency sonar-like device using its air engem, but then would need a void engem to "receive" the magic-infused soundwaves. --- Anyhow, hope any of that helps XD A lot of stuff in my notes I'm trying to simplify for the wiki. Hlissner 09:25, December 27, 2011 (UTC)